Once Upon a Time
by rosenzakura
Summary: LavixOC. We lived in a fairytale, you and I, until my leaving was nigh. And then you killed me.


Title: **Once Upon a Time**

Rating: PG/T

Genre: Angst/Romance

Summary: LavixOC. We lived in a fairytale, you and I, until my leaving was nigh. And then you killed me.

A/N: I'm not a big fan of OCs, but this one just kept coming into my head and sorta wrote itself. I don't think it classifies as MS, but then I'm biased.

Disclaimer: Original names, characters and places don't belong to me. I don't own anything except the general ridiculous plot-less plot. OC(s), if any, is/are mere make-believe. Yadablah.

* * *

_Had it really been so many years since? The day he died. Or could it be seen as the day she killed him? There were so many ways to see it. He stared out into the night, eyes glassed over. Right now, he wasn't seeing the lay of land outside the Order. He was again breathing in the scent of sakura petals, as he did, once upon a time...

* * *

_

There was once a young boy. He travelled with a wizened old man with eye bags like a panda seen in China and really odd hair. He called the old man his grandfather, even if they looked very different and not at all related. The old man could be considered vaguely Asian but the boy could only be said to be European. His hair was a dead giveaway, a beacon and stoplight in the crowd.

When he was 14, they made their way to Edo. And it was there that he felt his life was changed forever. Or at least, it felt so then.

He was excited, never having stepped on this land before, despite the (over) cautioning of his companion. The warnings went into one ear and then travelled rapidly out of the other.

They were received by an acquaintance of the old man, who introduced the boy as Akio. The boy grinned up at the friend of his grandfather, who offered them a place to stay and invited them to the celebrations that night. His grandfather declined the night's invitation, saying Akio could attend if he wished.

Akio grew only more excitable: it was the first time he could do such a thing alone.

* * *

He wandered through the crowd that night, taking in the sight with awe-filled eyes. It was a scene he had never behold before. He thought nothing could be quite so pretty and perfect in the world, so serene yet with life.

Then he saw. A boisterous child somewhere imitated a European traveler, yelling 'strike' the split second Akio saw her.

The young romantic in him, undead yet, believed in love-at-first-sight and that this was it.

He learnt later that she was their host's niece. A girl of mixed descent and shunned for it as the family saw it as her mother had used underhand means to marry her father. Akio thought it was rubbish.

Instead, he befriended her, letting his grandfather make excuses for him.

* * *

He never forgot the pretty, perfect picture he'd seen that night. Gold patterns and silvery embroidery over silky brown; dark hair softly dancing just the way darker orbs sparkled with hidden laughter.

He failed to see how she could be of mixed descent.

He fell fatally in love.

Just as he was supposed _not_ to do.

* * *

They spent afternoons wandering by the lake, just talking quietly. Or they'd sit under the sakura trees and just enjoy each other's company.

It was their own world, their fairytale world.

Everything was perfect, beautiful. Perfect, beautiful.

* * *

He liked to play with her hair when she dozed off. Soft, long strands that he loved to play with and arrange into the most intricate pattern of braids he could think of. When she awoke, he would find his life threatened then be told to grow out his own hair and play with it.

He just laughed and told her he liked to play with hers more.

* * *

He did the one thing he should never have done.

One late evening before dinner, he kissed her. Or was it she kissed him? He couldn't quite figure it out. It was more of… they kissed each other.

Sweet, quick and first, for them both. And resulting in flaming cheeks and avoidance for the next few days.

* * *

Then in his isolation, his grandfather told him they would leave in a week.

He never thought he'd feel so broken inside.

* * *

They spoke after that. He told her he'd leave her in a week. She acted as if she could not hear him. Then continued on their previous track of conversation.

It wasn't till the day before he'd leave that she asked him.

"_Will you remember me?"_

He could not reply. Akio would not forget her. Yet Akio will be replaced as soon as he left.

She turned and fled.

* * *

He found her by the lake in the night. And there, quietly, told her.

He was not Akio. He was a face, and mask, if she would see it that way. Once he left, Akio would leave too.

"_I don't care. Junior or Akio, I still don't want you to go."_

He could still hear his flimsy excuses.

* * *

"_So effectively, Akio would die. At Junior's hands or your grandfather's."_

He had not replied; she had taken his silence as affirmation.

She rose and in courtesy, so did he.

Her cool dark eyes bore into his single green. He willed her to see the anguish, wondered how could she be so cold.

"_I claim that right. You say he dies as soon as his main meaning of life is gone, Junior. Very well, __私は憎む__, Akio."_

She walked away that night. He never saw her again.

* * *

"_Kaoru…" Her name falls from his lips for the first time in so many years. No one ever noticed his secret anguish. Whenever he saw Lenalee crying. Whenever he ruffled Allen's hair. Whenever he saw Kanda. Whenever he heard Krory calling for his Eliade. _

_Lenalee's crying reminded him of how he'd hurt her._

_Allen's hair reminded him of her._

_Kanda reminded him of where he met her._

_And Krory made him wonder how she was now. Was she like Krory then? Still missing him the way Krory still missed Eliade? _

_She killed Akio, knowing that then; he did not want to die at his grandfather's hands, or by himself. She killed him on sheer instinct and he couldn't decide if to thank her for it._

_Krory had asked him once, why he called him 'Kuro-chan.' He had his answer now. It wasn't just because his name sounded like the word. The name was a close similar to hers... and the situation as well._

_He stares up at the sky, fantasizing that that cloud over there is her smiling face._

"_Akio's dead, Kaoru; but I'll still remember you. As myself. Everyone after Akio still remembers you. Junior and jiji can't stop that…_

"_I'll see you again. And we'll have our once upon a time once more. "_

* * *

A/N: Sad Lavi's kinda weird, seeing how he's always hyper. I want a usagi for christmas, drat it. This one was just one that insisted on being written, somehow. Not my best, I just typed it and scanned through. Upcoming exams don't spare me much time. The japanese text there is 'i hate you' but I used an online translator, so it's probably off. Please R&R! -iirse

_Editted: 17 February 2011_


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